School nurse and maternity leave

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Hi, everyone. I was just wondering if anyone knows if school nurses get paid maternity leave. If so how much? I am seriously thinking of applying for a school nurse position and I know we will trying for a baby in the next year and cannot do unpaid leave. Thanks.

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I'm guessing it depends on your district but my district does not have paid leave. You can take up to 12 weeks off without your job being in jeopardy, but in order to get paid you must use your vacation days, assuming you have any. Heck, even the major hospital system where I previously worked did not offer paid maternity leave. You had to use your PTO if you wanted to get paid. I don't think paid maternity leave is a common thing. You could try to time things so you can have your baby in the summer, that way you're still getting a paycheck and you have time off with your baby. Or you can purchase short term disability insurance (I've heard Aflac is great) so you can still get some pay while you take time off but those insurance policies usually have to purchased a year in advance before your pregnancy, so you may want to start looking into it now.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Like the previous poster stated, paid leave is pretty rare, you have to use your saved up sick/vacation time, then it's unpaid. The best way to get "paid" leave is to plan your pregnancy for an early summer delivery. Good luck.

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Another voice for it depends. My employer offers STD as part of the benefits package, but it's pretty bad, and it only covers 2-4 weeks depending on delivery after the 30 day waiting period. Very few small "businesses" offer paid maternity leave in the US though. Most likely you'll be using sick/vacation time or STD.

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Specializes in School nursing.
Another voice for it depends. My employer offers STD as part of the benefits package, but it's pretty bad, and it only covers 2-4 weeks depending on delivery after the 30 day waiting period. Very few small "businesses" offer paid maternity leave in the US though. Most likely you'll be using sick/vacation time or STD.

Like DEgalRn, my school offers short term disability you can pay into and it covers maternity leave. It's not bad, actually. About 6 weeks paid for lady partsl delivery, 8 weeks paid for C-section. You can take up to 12 weeks off total. Pay is only 66% of total pay, but tax free. We have staff on maternity leave all the time it seems, plus an on site day care for staff only (not free, but there). What state are you in, OP?

That being said, the students are my kids for now ;).

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plus an on site day care for staff only (not free, but there)

This is what I want more than anything!

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Specializes in School nursing.
This is what I want more than anything!

Come to MA - there may be a nurse opening at my school soon and you get to work with me ;).

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Come to MA - there may be a nurse opening at my school soon and you get to work with me ;).

Lol, I think I'd like MA. I'm not sure my husband would though!

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I pay less than $30/month for short term disability. If/when I need maternity leave it will pay $1000 on admission and then it pays almost the exact same as my normal pay after taxes. It covers 6-8 weeks depending on type of delivery, longer if your OB cannot clear you to return to work. Paid maternity leave is a very rare thing in the US.

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Specializes in School Nurse.

Try really hard to get pregnant in September. Deliver in June and you have the whole summer off! :)

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Specializes in ED, School Nurse.

One of the nurse's in my district is on maternity leave right now. We get whatever the teachers get in this district because we are on a teacher's contract. I'm not sure what exactly that means for us here because my youngest is 14 and maternity leave is so far from my radar screen that it's not even funny.

One teacher in my district had her baby in June and ended up with not only the usual summer off but the entire first semester off for maternity leave. Her first day back was Jan 23 or something like that. I am guessing that not all of that was paid maternity leave. I'm not close enough with her to ask how in the heck she was able to finagle so much time off, although I am curious.

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I am done having babies, so I haven't paid much attention to that part of my contract, but I think it is similar to what others have posted-- use sick time or short term disability. If you take insurance through your school, see how an unpaid leave would affect that. Best to call your HR dept and get it straight from the source :)

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